The day of the Sports Direct AGM, Sept 2017 , photo by Elaine Evans (Click to enlarge)

Sports Direct's broken promises

Unite reminded Mike Ashley on the day of the Sports Direct AGM of three broken promises, with lots of sad faces. Mike Ashley promised last year "to ensure that all staff are treated with dignity and respect".

Instead of keeping his promise, before clocking on workers are asked to tap a smiley or sad emoji. Tap the sad emoji and workers are asked to think about it and if they do not then choose the smiley emoji they are taken for a meeting with management :(

A year after promising guaranteed hours to shop floor staff in its Sports Direct stores they are still advertising for casual staff. This leaves workers with the prospect of weeks without work. Chairman Keith Hellawell claimed "a huge proportion of workers are happy to retain the flexibility".

Workers paid less than the minimum wage have also not had their back pay. Agencies and former agencies were blamed for this.

Elaine Evans

This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 8 September 2017 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.